The activities of fan translators and distributors can be explained with the conceptual tools drawn from the existing literature (e.g. working consumers, consumers put to work, consumers co-creating with producers and consumers as a source of innovation). Yet, this paper tries to draw attention to the fact that the above participatory consumers are undertaking tasks of cultural intermediation that are essential to bring a cultural product to an overseas audience, i.e. the tasks of reproduction of the original product, translation and editing, mass-production, advertising and promotion, and dissemination. (…) However, recent years has seen the decoupling of manga scanlators from their initial support for the market economy of translated manga production and distribution. This has come with the globalization of scanlation production and consumption and with advanced digital technologies and communication tools. Due to the wider penetration of online networks around the globe, the English scanlation community has expanded to include many fans – either scanlators or their viewers – outside the USA. (…) What can be noticed by now is that scanlation created huge “missing markets” of digital manga on a global scale. (…) The industry views these missing markets as something that can be transformed into its markets once the viewing of scanlated manga is discouraged. However, it is not known to what extent this can happen given that the missing markets are a product of manga fandom and have served as a significant part of the fandom itself.

Lee, Hye‐Kyung. “Cultural Consumers as ‘New Cultural Intermediaries’: Manga Scanlators.” Arts Marketing: An International Journal 2, no. 2 (October 19, 2012): 131–43. https://doi.org/10.1108/20442081211274011.